


I am Briar Rose

by Bahamut255



Category: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Genre: Gen, Yuletide, Yuletide 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 22:29:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12993879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bahamut255/pseuds/Bahamut255
Summary: I may be known as Queen Aurora.  But I will always be, Briar Rose.





	I am Briar Rose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celeria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeria/gifts).



> My first ever Yuletide Writing. I can only hope I did as well as celeria wished.

To those who might read this one day, this is the first in the account of the life of whom the People knew first, as Princess, then as Queen Aurora. Wife of King Phillip. Mother of her People, they call me, with compassion and mercy beyond measure. 

But this is not about the life of Aurora. 

What you are about to read, is the account of the life of Briar Rose. The name I was known by since I first formed memories, the name that, for sixteen years, was mine. About those around me, how they shaped my life from possibly before I was even born. 

From as early as I could remember, I lived in an idyllic woodcutter’s cottage, at the edge of the forests on the opposing side of The Forbidden Mountains. Only myself, and the three who raised me, my Maternal Figures. Aunt Flora, Aunt Fauna, and Aunt Merryweather. 

Sixteen years they raised me like their own. Always there to teach me all that they knew, I learned of every type of plant and flower there was, what they could do. I was even able to make a few herbal remedies of my own from this. Reading, writing, and arithmetic they taught me once I turned four. By fourteen, through Double-Translation - a practice I have maintained to this day - I was fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin. Indeed, observance of the family finances was a task they trusted to be when I turned fifteen. 

Yes, those many years were happy ones, but, like many a thing in life, they were not to last. 

For all they doted on me, they did have a great many quirks to them. Outside of Market, they oft-kept the family to itself. Indeed, I myself had never once ventured into Town, they were, almost fanatical in their refusal to allow me any opportunity to interact with others, no matter the circumstance. More than one instance I can recall simply conversing with a visitor, a tradesman, even a priest one time, and the moment they witnessed it, they would be quick to seize control of the matter, if not end whatever matter was discussed. 

Perhaps that is why I found myself making close friendships with those who inhabited the woodlands, the birds, squirrels, rabbits, even an owl. They couldn’t stop me conversing with them. 

However much this confused me, I never did push the subject. How could I? Other than my adoptive parents, I never had any substantial human contact, other than that one time when I turned sixteen. I still haven’t forgotten a single detail of that day, when after they surprised me with a beautiful cake and dress, I made mention of that mysterious young man I met in the woods that day. 

And the reason for why I can never forget that day became clear. 

Not only had I never been an orphan as they’d claimed for so long, but I had been a Princess of the nearby kingdom. The Princess Aurora, to whom those three, in reality fairies, had been tasked by King Stefan with my upbringing. To be sure, they had sought to explain the reason why to me, a Curse set upon me shortly after my birth by a Dark Faerie known as Maleficent, and by keeping me away from her sight, they could keep the Curse from ever coming to pass. But at the time, I couldn’t accept it, any of it. 

Because for sixteen years, I had lived a lie. But more than that, what truly hurt, was my utter belief that I would never see Phillip again. I hadn’t even known him for a day, and already I was beyond certain that he had been taken from me. 

At the castle that had only been a home to me for the first few days of my life, they even had the indignity of shoving a crown atop my head. That was the final straw, I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing then. I think, for the first, and final time, I hated them. 

Perhaps that is why Maleficent had such an easy time compelling me to approach a certain room, and prick my finger on a certain spinning wheel, to enact a certain curse she’d set up all those years ago, and place me in a Death-like Slumber. To be completely honest with myself, she could have entered the room directly and told me what to do, and I still would have done exactly that. Such was the state of my despair at the time. 

Said Death-like Slumber is the reason why what happened next, I can only recite what I was told. That in an effort to keep the curse from being lifted, Phillip had been kidnapped by Maleficent, her intent being to keep him until he was in the Twilight of his Life before she would release him to return to me, all to increase the pain and suffering that all would experience. That through his efforts and those of my adoptive parents, Maleficent was killed, the curse lifted shortly after. 

It was some years however, before I could find it in my Heart to forgive them, for the sixteen-year long lie they had fed me. But in the end, I could, and I did. Friendly terms with them restored at long last. 

====

Then there is the matter of Phillip himself. 

When we first met, I cannot explain precisely how, but I knew, he was the one I met, Once Upon a Dream. That day, in the woods, when we first met, I Fell for Him, completely, utterly. 

Furthermore, having never known me as Princess Aurora until after it was revealed to myself, he never truly saw the Princess, but rather me. For him, he saw the charming Peasant Girl he met and fell for at first sight. That, I believe, is what formed the foundation of our (arranged) marriage, and permitted it to endure with love and joy throughout the years. 

Yes, our marriage was, and still is, a happy one. Even after inheriting his Throne - and myself mine a few years after - he would always make time in the day for us to have our moments. Later ourselves and our three children. 

Now with the grey setting in, he still carries the energy of his youth, especially in his eyes. The warm smile that says he will listen to anything I have to say. The strong arms that will hold me when I need them. 

And through all this, himself and myself, we both know a Hard Truth all too well. That being just how fortunate we both are, that we were able to meet that day, and fall for each other, knowing full well just how close to a disaster it could have been. Not merely with the Trials he faced to return to me that night, but in how our marriage had been arranged since almost as soon as my birth. 

And it was Phillip, who aided me in forgiving the Three Good Fairies. By his own account, it was through their assistance that he was able to not only escape the Dungeons of Maleficent, but defeat her as well. 

Certainly, his opinion of them was greater than mine at the time, given he first met them during his imprisonment, alongside his not knowing - at the time - the magnitude of their deception towards myself, and most certainly had never experienced it himself. He acknowledged as much himself. And also that while they had lied to me for so long, their had never been any malice in their actions. Quite the opposite he believed, and which I came to learn, and accept myself. They did what they did, _because_ they cared about my welfare. About me. 

====

To close this chapter, I would speak of my parents. My birth parents. 

There is really little I can say about them. How can I speak much of them? Even after I learned of my Heritage, I barely knew them. Only six times did I meet them after my marriage to Phillip, and then only during formal visitations. Not nearly enough to speak of them in any great detail. 

====

As I close this chapter, I look back on my life, all the events decided for me that led me to this moment. As I look out the window to the Full Moon, the Shimmering Stars in the night sky, I think of one of the few matters that I truly am my own Mistress of. 

I may be known as Queen Aurora. But I will always be, Briar Rose.


End file.
